Silent Voices: Women With Disabilities and Family and Domestic Violence

Written by By Judith Cockram, PhD.

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Research Methodology

The project incorporated an applied methodology, with research being undertaken using methods that maximised the relevance and on-going value of findings. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to gather information from agency workers. Qualitative methods were utilised with women with disabilities who have experienced family and domestic violence. In addition, a review of the most recent published research in the area of disability and domestic violence was conducted and an annotated bibliography compiled. It is intended that the annotated bibliography of recent research, which is provided in Appendix 1, will provide a knowledge and information resource for agencies and organisations working in the areas of women, disability and family and domestic violence.

Quantitative Data

A questionnaire was mailed to 231 disability, domestic violence, community and government organisations in Western Australia that may have had contact with women with disabilities who had experienced family and domestic violence. As many organisations and individuals make extensive use of electronic communications, the questionnaire was also made available on the Internet. Instructions were included in the postal surveys on how to access and complete the survey online.

In addition, ACROD (the National Industry Association for Disability Services), Western Australian Division, distributed the survey to over 360 agencies and organisations through their own email system.

Covering instructions outlined how to access the survey document attached to email. It could be printed, completed and returned by post or completed and returned by email. Information on how to access the survey online was also included. Assurances of confidentiality were given.

Agencies may have received the questionnaire through more than one source. In trying to reach as many agencies as possible it was hoped that any level of saturation would encourage a greater level of response.

A total of 107 completed questionnaires were returned (79 by post, 15 via the Internet, 7 by fax and 6 were emailed). Of these, 35 agencies reported they did not keep records relating to a women's disability or had not had any contact with women with disabilities who had experienced family and domestic violence over the two years preceding the research. The remaining 72 agencies reported they had women in the target group accessing their services in the past two years.

The questionnaire responses provided information on:

agency's primary service;
types of services the agency offered to women with disabilities who had experience family or domestic violence;
accessibility of the service for women with disabilities;
number of women with disabilities who had experienced family or domestic violence accessing the service in the last two years;
number of women who had acquired a disability as a result of abuse, and the number who had a history of abuse before the onset of the disability;
number of women from a non-English speaking or indigenous background;
type of violence that the women experienced;
perpetrator of the violence;
estimated period of time that the women had experienced violence;
types of interventions that had occurred and level of satisfaction with these interventions;
number of women who had children who were involved in the process of intervention and
what would help them to respond more effectively to the needs of women with disabilities who experienced family and domestic violence.

Qualitative Data

Agencies were invited to participate more fully in the research by way of undertaking a semi-structured interview. A list of agency representatives willing to be interviewed about their involvement with women with disabilities who had experienced family and domestic violence was compiled from the returned questionnaires. Thirty-one interviews were conducted either face to face or by telephone. Nine interviewees were from domestic violence services including refuges, 9 from disability services, 5 women's health workers, 4 from family support services, and a representative from Western Australian Police Services, and a sexual assault referral centre. A lawyer and a psychologist who have extensive experience in the area also participated in the interviews.

Another list comprised agencies (including many on the first list) willing to put the research team in touch with women they believed would agree to a personal interview. The agency made the initial contact with the client and the principal researcher then approached those women who consented to participate.

However, only three of the women came from this source. Some agencies had also included information about the research in their newsletters and community radio also included details in their community bulletins. This meant that most of the women who participated self referred.

Profile of the women interviewed

Thirty-two face-to-face interviews were conducted with the women by the principal researcher. The women who participated in the study came from a wide variety of backgrounds and circumstances. All of the women lived in the metropolitan area of Perth. Three women were from non-English speaking background, and three were indigenous women. The range of disability included fifteen women with physical disabilities that resulted from injury, chronic disease or congenital conditions, 8 women with an intellectual disability or cognitive impairment, 7 women with psychiatric disability and 2 with a sensory disability. Women's age ranged from 22 to 61. All had significant histories of family and domestic violence, in some cases within several relationships. Over one half of the women had experienced childhood abuse.

It was recognised that the researchers were asking a great deal from the women in the way of time and co-operation. Many of the women were at a stage in their lives when they had every reason to exclude 'others' altogether in order to concentrate on the process of rebuilding their futures. Many women, however, welcomed the opportunity to participate in the hope that their stories would help other women in similar circumstances. The researcher was vigilant in addressing issues of confidentiality and anonymity, continually clarified the aims and purpose of the research and the security of the data. Assurances were given that no identifying information would be used in research.

As a central concern of this research was to give voice to women's experiences of and reactions to domestic violence, qualitative research methods were used to explore the women's subjective accounts of violence in their lives. Specific questions to each informant were phrased informally often over a cup of coffee. The naturalism of unstructured interviewing creates the illusion that the interview is a 'conversation' (Oakley, 1981): one in which an informant can initiate questions and elaborate answers (without prompting) just as much as the interviewer. Interviews covered all topics the research was concerned about, either raised by the woman herself, or introduced by the researcher. The conversational nature of the interviews facilitated both more and careful listening and the ability to return to past issues and events. It also helped the researcher to notice and check any apparent contradictions. Although all interviews covered the same ground, the women were able to introduce and emphasise experiences in the discussion that were important to them.

The Project Reference Committee established a set of "Guidelines for Referral and Support" for interviewing individual women to ensure that they were supported appropriately throughout the research process. This is provided in Appendix 2.

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